Exercise in a Pill: Have Scientists Really Found a Drug That’s as Good for You as Running a 10K?

ca pill really mimics all the beneficial effects of exercise? You would think so from some stories about substances that can “make going to the gym unnecessary”. There was another rash of this a few weeks ago Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark announced this that a drug called LaKe “puts the body in a metabolic state equivalent to running 10 km at high speed on an empty stomach.” But what’s going on here? Even if a pill can mimic parts of what exercise does for us, how useful is that really?

First things first, the most accepted term for drugs like LaKe is “mimetics,” because they generally mimic the biological effects of exercise without actually breaking a sweat. The idea has been around for a while: in 2008San Diego-based Salk Institute has introduced the world to a drug called GW501516 (516 for short), which signals key genes to burn fat instead of sugar, allowing rodent subjects to run longer without hitting the proverbial wall.

In later tests, a pair of rodents nicknamed Couch Potato Mouse and Lance Armstrong Mouse, both raised on the same diet of fatty, sugary pellets, performed the same amount of daily physical activity, but Lance Armstrong Mouse was given a dose of 516 – and significantly increased his endurance, while remaining much leaner than his control counterpart. A variant of 516 soon ended up on the black market as a banned doping drug known as Endurabol, and the World Anti-Doping Agency warned athletes that it was unsafe – but many more knockoffs were already in development.

Connection 14, first announced in 2015began development as a way to treat other diseases, before researchers discovered that it could lower fasting blood glucose levels, improve glucose tolerance and promote weight loss in obese mice. Since then we’ve also seen research into Lac-Phe, a chemical commonly produced in the body through resistance training, and a new molecule known as SLU-PP-332which boosts metabolism and endurance, allowing rodents to run 50% further than before. The latter, being principal investigator says, tells the skeletal muscles to make the changes typically caused by endurance training. That has the potential to help dieters maintain muscle mass during weight loss, or avoid the elderly sarcopenia because their body responds less strongly to exercise.

LaKe is still in the development phase of the rat study, so there is no guarantee that the results will transfer to humans. But what it appears to do is first cause a rapid increase in lactate in the body – which mimics the kind of effect you normally see after a period of intense exercise – and then a more gradual increase in a chemical called beta-hydroxybutyrate . (BHB). BHB is a ketone, or a chemical synthesized in the liver from fatty acids to provide the body with energy when it doesn’t have enough glucose – which is where the idea of ​​“walking on an empty stomach” comes from.

Together, these two changes appear to reduce the level of free fatty acids in the bloodstream and also suppress appetite – these are effects you would expect from fasting (exercising without eating beforehand), and could help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease to reduce. conditions such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes in the long term. And (again, in rats) the pill appears to show no signs of toxicity – unlike early versions of 516, which promoted the rapid growth of cancer cells in their rodent subjects. So promising – but is it really that simple?

Well, it’s hard to say. Exercise affects almost all body systems, in often complex ways that we are still far from understanding (the largest research program aimed at understanding its impact at the molecular level, using almost 2,600 volunteers, is still ongoing). Together, many of the drugs mentioned above could mimic some of these – perhaps combining with already government-approved interventions like Ozempic to promote a host of benefits. But every supplement has limitations: exercise is a full-body experience, with downstream effects that include everything from improved bone density to better sleep. It improves mood and self-esteem while reducing stress, and appears to have properties that protect against dementia. All of these consequences arise from complex interactions between a host of biological effects – but even if science could recreate them all with pills, it would be much harder to achieve the psychological benefits of running a 5K with friends, or achieving to imitate a new personal record in sports. the squat.

We are still a long way from finding safe drugs that can mimic the most beneficial effects of exercise in humans, but if they do exist, they will likely be most useful for people who are older, sick, frail, or otherwise unable to exercise. the real thing. They could help people recovering from surgery – or astronauts who, even while training in orbit, suffer bone loss and muscle wasting because their bodies work less hard in microgravity. For the rest of us, the benefits of a leisurely walk or a handful of squats are difficult to replicate with pills, and (fairly) easy to obtain without pills. One day we may be able to do our exercises in pill form, but right now it’s much easier to hit the road.